Delhi: Conjoined twins’ first surgery goes well

AIIMS on Tuesday successfully separated a “significant of portion” of the brain of two-year-old twins from Odisha, who are joined at the head.

The institute started India’s first craniopagus surgery to separate the two twins Jaga and Baliya .

The surgery lasted over 24 hours.

Senior officials said , “both the children are still united at the head as before from the outside, however a significant portion of their brain was separated and a new venous bypass channel has been created in them”.

Doctors said surgery started at 8.45am on Monday and finished at 6.30am on Tuesday.

First time in India new bypass technique had been used said Professor Deepak Gupta, pediatric neurosurgeon at AIIMS.

“The twins will require one-two more operations within three months for a final separation and will be kept under observation till then. Surgical planning was done in such a way that the lives of both children could be saved with minimal side effects,” Dr Gupta said.

Doctors said the twins are doing well.

“Surgery was uneventful and there was no major blood loss or intraoperative problem,” said Dr A K Mahapatra, chief of the neurosciences centre at AIIMS, who headed a team of 40 doctors.